Bio & Incident Details

Officer Jimmy Kennedy and Officer Richard Adair were ambushed while responding to a shots fired call.

The officers were dispatched to a weapon call, as the suspect had opened fire without provocation on a neighbor and wounded him as he drove out of his driveway. The wounded driver drove down a hill, passed out and wrecked, prompting neighbors to call police.

As the officers pulled up near the suspect's home, he fired on both with a rifle from a second floor window, striking them both in the head and killing them instantly. A back-up officer, a responding detective, was also shot and wounded. The chief of police then arrived and contained the scene while calling for backup from Alaska State Troopers. Before the troopers arrived, the suspect committed suicide.

Officer Kennedy had served with the Juneau Police Department for 18 months.

Related Line of Duty Deaths

Most Recent Reflection

This happened near my house during my senior year of high school. I still remember seeing the markings on the street when I walked home from an after school job that day. I remember this very clearly, and although the perpetrator was technically my neighbor, no one on the street knew him well, and I just thought he was a reclusive man who kept to himself. I'm so sorry that this happened to these two officers. I'll always remember.
Lisa Schmiege Shrestha